We don't KNOW what is going bad.  He's swapped out hard drives with no luck, then put the old one back WITH the new one, ran I don't know how many spyware/adware/fix-it programs and he still doesn't know what the problem is.  It freezes - randomly, with no apparent pattern to the freeze at all.  Then it's a b*tch to reboot.

He's good with computers, hardware and software, has built most of ours except this one (it's an hp off the shelf we bought after Katrina).  He wiped things clean to the point I almost had a virginal computer, to which I reinstalled Bryce and PSP 7 from the original discs.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I will pass them on to see if it's something he HASN'T tried yet.

sigh  I don't like his computer, it doesn't have Bryce on it!

Dee/cherokeeheart